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“Noah,” Greyson’s deep voice called when I was only a few steps away. He used his hold on my hand to tug me back to him easily. “I’m in love with you too.” His intense stare made my heart skip a beat. “I love you too.”

All my words left me, so I just stared at him, hoping my ears weren’t broken.

I’m in love with you too.

I love you too.

He had a tight hold on the back of my neck, pressing his forehead against mine. “My bad for eavesdropping, but I don’t wanna pretend I didn’t hear that.”

“You really got a thing for making confessions in hallways, Grey.”

He smiled against my lips and kissed me, hard and fast, pulling away before we could get lost in it.

Still holding me against him, he echoed my earlier words. “I’ll see you at home.”

“Noah, it’s so early,” I groaned, pulling my fleece robe tighter before I opened the screen door to let him in.

He gave me a deadpan look. “True, it’s ten a.m. And since Greyson kicked me out of the resort for the rest of the week, you stuck with me. Also, I missed Duchess.”

“We were still sleeping.” I yawned, covering my mouth.

Noah kissed my nose and pulled a box from behind his back.

“How was the Christmas tree farm? I think I was sleep before y’all got back.” Duchess was such a good cuddle buddy all night. I wrote a chapter, ate leftovers and fell asleep on the couch in front of the fire before I moved us to the bedroom with my space heater. It was a good ass night. But now I wanted to see the tree they picked.

Noah wasn’t interested in answering my question. His focus was on the box between us, and I finally pulled my attention to it, my brow raising in curiosity. “What’s this?”

Excitement shined in his eyes.

“Today is December 2nd. Me and Grey got you a gift to open for the next thirty days until your thirtieth birthday. I don’t know how it’s gonna work when you leave for Christmas, though. I guess we’ll send the gifts with you and watch you open them on FaceTime. Or you can open them before you leave.” He shook his head, cutting himself off mid-ramble. “It doesn’t matter. Here’s your first gift.”

Smiling, I caressed his face and accepted it. “That’s so cute. What is it?”

“Open it.”

The gift was wrapped in brown kraft paper with a red ribbon tied around it. I walked back to the living room, yanking the ribbon off before I tore into the paper.

The rectangular box inside gave nothing away, making me look up at Noah with a quizzical smile.

Finally, I pulled the top open and paused when all I saw was three stacks of cash.

Three,five-thousand-dollarstacks of cash, to be exact.

“Noah, did you just gift wrap fifteen thousand dollars?”

He ducked his head with a shy smile. “Aight. Hear me out. I know it’s tacky to give people cash as a gift, but I can explain.”

“I’m not complaining,” I mumbled, testing the weight of each stack. The orange paper banding each one held my attention until Noah tipped up my chin.

“It’s for your next audiobook. You told me how expensive they are to produce on your own. And before you say anything, Iknowyou can pay for it. I just want to. So, whenever your next book is done, that’s one less thing for you to worry about.”

“Noah, what? Oh my god.” I slapped a hand over my mouth when tears welled in my eyes. “That’s so sweet, thank you.”

“You deserve it, Red. I know the past year has been some shit. And I meant it when I said I was proud of you. All I wanna do is see you happy and getting everything you deserve.”

I let out a mix between a laugh and a sob, falling into his arms.

I didn’t know what to say, so I wrapped my arms around him and cried softly into his chest. Outside of my parents, nobody had ever supported my dreams this hard. And he did it without thinking. He just listened and delivered, like he’d been doing it our whole lives.